Government gives Makerere 30b for research as Sweden pulls out
Makerere university vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The ambassador of Sweden, Mr Per Lindgarde, urged the government to come up with a national research policy.
Kampala. The government has promised to extend Shs30b to Makerere University in the Financial Year 2019/2020 for research after Sweden announced that they are ending their funding to the public institution next year.
The Swedish government through its development arm, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), has since 2000 been a primary source of funding for capacity building and research in Uganda, which has been channelled through Makerere University under a bilateral research collaboration programme started.
The Scandinavian country, however, recently announced that they are ending the funding next June.
Speaking yesterday during the Makerere-Sweden bilateral research annual planning meeting at Makerere main campus, the vice chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, said he is optimistic that the government will cover the funding gap.
“I am aware that the current research cooperation agreement will come to an end in 2020 and the Ugandan partner universities are working an exit strategy to sustain the research investments beyond 2020,” Prof Nawangwe said.
“Much as this money [Shs30b] is not enough, we hope it is remitted every financial year,” he added.
Prof Nawangwe said the funding has been critical to the realisation of the university’s core functions of teaching, research and innovations.
He revealed that since the funding started in 2000, it has enabled 250 students complete their PhDs and more than 100 for master’s degrees and post-doctoral research programmes.
The ambassador of Sweden, Mr Per Lindgarde, urged the government to come up with a national research policy.
“Uganda needs to have a national research policy that enables national development; It should focus on achieving the goal for development and I welcome the decision by the government to allocate additional budget for Makerere,” Mr Lindgarde said.
However, the director research and graduate training at the Makerere University, Prof Buyinza Mukadasi, warned that research at the institution will stall if the government does not fully fund research at the university. He said they are drawing the exit plan, indicating the areas the government must take up from Sweden.
